I noticed a growth about the size of a quarter on Linus's left front leg just before we left for Indiana. It was way up by his armpit so not very noticeable most of the time.
By the first of this week, it had turned quite ugly and Linus was licking it so I called Open Door Animal Sanctuary. They provide veterinarian services for those in the Seniors for Seniors dog adoption program and I have swallowed my pride and started to take advantage of what they offer rather than drop over a hundred dollars every time we go to the vet down the road! I emailed a photo of the growth to them Monday and was told to bring him in Tuesday morning where they kept him throughout the day and performed surgery to remove the growth. A sample was sent to be biopsied but the vet believes she was able to remove it all. Late Tuesday afternoon, Linus and I returned home with antibiotics to take and instructions to bring him back Thursday for a dressing change.
Well, by Wednesday morning, Linus was clearly in pain - panting and not willing to walk on his leg at all and his leg looked a little swollen - so I called and was told to bring him back that day. Open Door is in House Springs, a 35 minute drive from our house, so going there takes up some time. They redressed his wound and sent me home with additional wound dressing supplies and some pain killers. Why they didn't give us those with the antibiotics is beyond me? Happily, by the end of Wednesday, Linus was walking on his own again and seemed to be feeling better. We even bought him a larger dog bed....
Keeping his dressing on has been a challenge. We were not sent home with a "cone of shame" so I've had to improvise by wrapping dressing around his shoulder so he can't pull off the bandage from his leg.
Sally hovered around Linus after he came home, actually choosing to stay by him rather than hang out in her favorite place under our bed! Nurse Sally....
HOWEVER, she became quite a problem Friday night. We always put the dogs into their kennel just before we head to bed. They get a treat, we close the door, turn the fan on high for white noise and they are good for the night. But, for some reason, on Friday, Sally would not settle down. She just whined and yipped constantly. Linus, on the other hand, was quiet next to her. After 30 minutes, I thought maybe her paw was stuck so I got up out of bed and went in to check. Nope, her paw was fine. I let them out to go potty, put them back in their kennel, went back to the bedroom, closed the door, and she started up again. No volume of our white noise would drown her out. Finally, after another 30 minutes went by, I caved – because I absolutely could not sleep through it – and let both dogs out. They both happily went to the TV room and I went back to bed. Ten minutes later, Sally is scratching on our bedroom door! So, I caved again and let her go under our bed. I climbed back in bed and five minutes later, she is hopping up on our bed, panting! Finally, I got up and put a half a Benadryl tablet in some cheese – and I took the other half! – but she wouldn’t take it from my hand as I offered it to her as she was under our bed. So, I put it on the floor in front of her and got back into bed and, thankfully, she let us sleep and sometime in the night, she ate her cheese/Benadryl ball. I was worried this would be a trend so last night, I pre-emptively gave her a Benadryl/cheese ball about thirty minutes before bedtime. I don't know if that was the solution or if Sally was just being her usual happy-to-sleep-in-the-kennel self (which she is 98% of the time) but she (and we) had a peaceful night.
Aside from dogs filling our lives, we had a fairly normal week except for Tuesday. For Lucy's 12th birthday back in April, we gave her a gift certificate for a trip to the zoo (like we did for Quinn) and the weather and our schedules finally aligned for us to take her Tuesday morning. But, if you will recall, we also took Linus to the vet on Tuesday AND we also finally had our scheduled body shop repair for the Kia (remember the hit-and-run that trashed our left rear bumper back in June). SO, I drove Linus down to Open Door in the Element, drove up to a half-way rendezvous location to meet Emily who brought Lucy. Then, Lucy and I drove home to pick up Steve and we went to the zoo in the Element. Had a lovely time! After lunch and a visit to the gift shop, we drove to an Enterprise car rental to pick up our loaner car for the duration of the Kia repair. Steve then took Lucy in the rental to meet Emily at another half-way rendezvous and I drove back down to House Springs to collect Linus. Whew! What a day! Keep in mind that the Element has no functioning air conditioning and, while Tuesday was a relatively mild day, one still has to drive the Element with the windows down and being bludgeoned by constant wind is exhausting! I don't know how motorcyclists tolerate it!. By the time I got home with Linus, I was done! Here are photos of Lucy and the zoo....
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